


easy

by littleleotas



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-29
Updated: 2016-09-29
Packaged: 2018-08-16 16:46:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8109979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littleleotas/pseuds/littleleotas
Summary: On falling in love. For Mass Effect Poly Week.





	

**Author's Note:**

> No one read this but me, all mistakes are on me.

Garrus fell first, because he always did. No caution, no hesitation, his heart raced away with him. If he'd been paying attention, he could've pinpointed when, but his heart left him in the dust in its haste.

“Commander Shepard? Garrus Vakarian,” he said.

“Oh, hello, it's you, you're here, took you long enough,” his heart said.

And it was her, from the very beginning. It was her when she tried to take Saleon in and told Garrus that you can't predict what people will do, and he thought that meant not to trust them at all, but she meant to always believe the best of people. It was her when she tried to talk Saren down after Garrus told her to just shoot him and be done with it.

It was her when she died, and that was when he realised it.

~-~-~

For all her wisdom, Shepard had a way of missing what was right in front of her. It wasn't as if this could have been expected, nor had she gone out of her way looking for it. There it was, all the same.

“I don't think kissing turians will be necessary.”

She hadn't realised she was deflecting.

After Saren, he left, and she thought about him, and she missed him. She walked down to the equipment lockers and looked across the shuttle bay without realising what she was looking for.

Cerberus brought her back to life and handed her a pile of dossiers. If something drew her to Archangel, she wasn't cognisant of it. She didn't think twice, she just went to Omega.

And he took off his helmet, and he said her name, and her heart leapt into her throat and said, “Oh, it's you, it was always you.”

~-~-~

They found the workers in Nassana's building locked safely away, and Garrus learned the assassin took time to ensure the safety of others. They found a merc, victim of a headshot – a perfect one, with no collateral damage – and the workers praised the assassin's care and precision. This was the work of a man who, despite what his profession might suggest, cared about what was right and what was wrong, a man who still believed good people exist and need protection, a man who cared to do things right rather than fast. And Garrus was in love with him before he set eyes on him.

And he watched Thane during missions, his eyes focused through the scope, his hands folded in prayer before battle. He listened, after Sidonis, when Thane told him how he met his wife, and late at night when their paths crossed in the mess and they made conversation awkwardly, haltingly.

He remembered how he felt like this once before, and how he lost her, but she came back, and he realised he couldn't keep counting on being that lucky.

He reached across the table and took Thane's hand.

~-~-~

With her, it was almost laughably simple. Thane had, as they say, a type. In battle, she was a warrior angel, all illuminated with internal fire. To those she cared about, she was kind, she was patient, she was comfort and strength. Even to her enemies, she never stopped trying to mend a bridge before burning it. Thane watched her in all situations with awe.

He heard about her standing between Garrus and his mark, and he laughed. At Garrus, true, but mostly at himself.

And Garrus. He was something new. He was fire, like her, but without her control. He just burned, and it was impossible not to feel his heat. He never was able to give less than all of himself to anything. If a wrong needed righting, Garrus would stop at nothing to right it. If he was angry, it was all-consuming. If he felt something, he felt it completely. He was set at either 0 or 100, with nothing in-between.

When he took Thane's hand, Thane understood what it meant.

~-~-~

Shepard, true to form, figured it out last. She neither expected it nor went looking for it, but there it was. She couldn't tell you why her heart surged up in her chest every time she went to life support to talk to Thane. She couldn't tell you why she beamed uncontrollably when she saw Thane and Garrus sitting and talking in the mess. She couldn't tell you why that familiar feeling came back, that “Oh, it's you, I've missed you, you're here now.”

She was born on a spaceship, she grew up on them, she never had a place she called home. She was always in the sky, in space, in the stars. It was standing between Thane and Garrus where she first felt truly grounded. “Oh,” her heart said, “this is home.”

All she ever heard was people talking about how hard it was, how difficult relationships were. All she could think was that it had been so easy. Even when circumstances were hard, when other things in their lives were hard, standing with them, or collapsing into them, taking their hands, falling into their arms – it was the easiest thing in the world.

She closed her eyes and leaned back, her head on Thane's shoulder, one hand in his, the other around Garrus sleeping in her lap.

“Are you alright, siha?” whispered Thane.

“Yes,” she whispered back.


End file.
